2019 and a Thread of Hope

At some point in the last week of 2018 I realized that 2019 would bring us one step closer to the end of Donald Trump.  Strictly speaking, I have marked that happy news every day since this inept and cruel man took office.  But 2019 really does feel significant; next year we have a presidential election and we can refuse to re-elect him.  This year, candidates will be ginning up to make the challenge.  Elizabeth Warren has already announced that she will explore a run.  That alone changes the tenor of the political landscape; she’s not going to be quiet while Trump endangers us.  She’s willing to lead and will pull mightily in another direction.  

That’s hopeful.

There is no guarantee that the national discourse will shift and the limits of the Electoral College remain.  But 2019 feels like Trump’s days are limited.  I will certainly do my best to see him lose the White House.  While I eagerly await for the Mueller report, my hopes for the end of Trump don’t rest on that report alone.  For starters, I’ve grown weary of the wait.  In addition, I don’t really expect that any of the Republicans in Congress will stand up for decency and against Trump.  They haven’t thus far, though each week (sometimes each day!) brings new evidence that Trump is not suited to be the nation’s president.  I don’t expect that anything Mueller reports will change the minds of the GOP’s leaders.

But I watched Nancy Pelosi be sworn in as Speaker with an assortment of children around her and I felt pride.  The sheer number of women elected to the House feels like progress; like we are moving in the right direction.  I do have hope about our nation’s voters.  Even accounting for the disaster that is the Electoral College, I feel it.  It seems like a wispy thing, hope in such an era as this.  But it’s all that we have; all that I have.  So I will hold tightly to it and live in hope.

It’s Done…Now What?

Last night, Justices Kagan and Sotomayor spoke at Princeton University where they reminded the audience of the importance of the Supreme Court as a trusted institution of American government. Historically, the Court has been trusted by the people.  In a period when neither the Congress nor the Presidency is trusted, it’s essential not to lose this third branch.

The conformation and seating of Brett Kavanaugh is dangerous on a number of fronts.  For starters, it sends an ugly message to survivors of sexual assault.  In the best light, it’s something along the lines of “I believe you but I don’t care.”  In the worst, it’s “I don’t believe you and I don’t care.”  That’s dangerous in a world in which women and men must live together.  It also lays bare a political divide in which the Republican party is willing to do anything in order to win a short-term political battle.  I fear that many Democrats will take up that challenge.  I caution against it because we must believe in our ability to be a republic that tolerates political disagreements without descending into ugliness and violence.  

Though Democratic frustration will likely bring a surge of voters to the November midterm elections, that won’t fix the damage of the Kavanaugh conformation.  Historically, Chief Justices have worked to build consensus in order to guarantee the credibility of the Court.  I’m no fan of Chief Justice Roberts but there is some evidence that he is aware of the role he can play in the longterm credibility of the Court.  Justice Roberts has spoken of this very issue and has, on occasion, voted in a way that suggests he is able to place consensus over politics.  I’m not optimistic, but neither do I think that all hope is lost on this front.  

In the meantime, there is a path forward:

1.  Believe survivors of sexual assault and work to provide them with the confidence to speak out and the resources and space to heal.

2.  Make clear the importance of consent, that we are and must be the masters of our own bodies, that sexual assault and sexual harassment is wrong and will not be tolerated by any of us.  Raise our sons and daughters to understand this.

3.  Work for candidates who will work on behalf of the causes that matter to us.  For me, that’s civil rights for all of us, gun control, protection of women’s rights to make decisions about their bodies, healthcare, the environment, childcare and child poverty, reform of the criminal justice system, student loan reform……there is no end of work to be done on behalf of a future that we can be proud to create.

4.  Register and vote.  Every time there is an election, vote.  Vote, vote, vote.

I usually end this sort of post by noting that I live in hope.   But it’s a hard time to live in hope, which feels fragile and whimsical in a time of such ugliness in our political divide.  So I will pause, take a deep breath, and once-again refuse to be broken or to lose hope.  Hope is the only way forward and we must find it together.

Judicially Intemperate

My liberal credentials and beliefs s are no secret and for that reason I never supported the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.  His reading of the Constitution is different from mine — he does not favor the right to privacy, which protects both a woman’s right to choose as well as marriage equality.  He favors a reading of the second amendment which permits little restriction of guns, including automatic assault rifles.  In terms of the Voting Rights Act, nothing he has written is promising and the gutting of the VRA will continue if he’s on the Court.  Ditto for the Violence Against Women Act.

These are not negotiable issues for me and my opposition was clear from the outset.

Add in the allegations by Susan Blasey Ford and others and my suspicions that Brett Kavanaugh is not suitable for a Supreme Court lifetime appointment is confirmed.  He could have apologized for the behavior toward Blasey Ford; he could have acknowledged that as a young man he drank to excess and may very well have made some poor decisions.  He did not. Instead, he denied and, quite frankly, lied about his drinking under sworn oath.

Then came his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.  There, his anger and vitriol toward Senate Democrats and the half of the nation who identify with that party made very clear that this man is nor prepared to be an unbiased, thoughtful judge.  He is a partisan hack whose naked and ugly ambitions govern his every word and every thought.  The Wall Street Journal editorial he penned yesterday further magnifies his disqualification.  It was a pathetic effort to make amends for his trifling and sniping he showed in his Senate appearance last week.  He was called before the Judiciary Committee as a candidate for judge, not as a man, a father, or a husband.  And if couldn’t set aside his politics then (or even create the appearance that he will do so), then he cannot serve on the Supreme Court, let alone the lower federal judiciary.

Historically, the Supreme Court has been an institution in which the American people have confidence and faith.  If Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Court the Supreme Court will automatically become less credible.  Its ability to protect our rights from a tyrannical government will be in doubt.   Our most trusted institution will stumble, perhaps forever.  The stakes are that significant.  

Kavanaugh must be rejected, if not for his Constitutional views and character, then for his unapologetic partisanship.  He is judicially intemperate and the republic cannot take such risks.

Supremely Well Played

When Brett Kavanaugh was nominated to the Supreme Court, I figured that Democrats would fight the good fight and lose anyway.  We’d have yet another Supreme Court justice well to the right of the center (and actual American public opinion), especially on the issue of the right to privacy and abortion.

Now that federal court nominations are filibuster-proof, a Democratic party short of 51 seats in the Senate is doomed to lose.  I had little hope that Republican pro-choice senators like Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins would save us.  Of course they would ask Kavanaugh how he felt about Roe v. Wade and of course he would say it is “settled law.”  Murkowski and Collins would act as if this was re-assuring while the rest of us would know that the answer was anything but since the Supreme Court’s primary power is to alter whatever “settled” law they wish to change.  Roe would quickly be unravelled and then we’d be fighting like hell to hold on to marriage equality.  Reasonable gun control didn’t have a prayer.

I wouldn’t say that I was sanguine about this prospect.  It would be yet another in the chain of horrifying developments that is the Trump Administration.  I would not give up hope and I’d continue to fight like mad to ensure that in subsequent elections there would be enough motivated voters to back our nation off the political ledge that is Donald Trump and his merry band of right-wing bigotry.  

In an office discussion, my boss and I made one of our one dollar bets.  He took confirmation for a dollar and I was sporting, taking the side of a “no” vote for Kavanaugh.  I figured the money was gone but I like to indulge in bitter, ironic laughter.  Clearly, I hadn’t accounted for Senator Chuck Schumer’s willingness to play political hard ball.  At every step of the confirmation process, the Democratic minority leader and his fellow senators have played the long-game on the Kavanaugh nomination.  Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris were heroic in their willingness to insist upon full release of Kavanaugh’s records as well as persistence on the very hard questions.  They played it so well that although I still expected confirmation I felt the Democrats had set us up for a longer term win, suggesting enough doubts about Kavanaugh that we could use the issue to encourage better Democratic turnout in 2018 and well beyond.

I also came to believe that the combination of Republican urgency to confirm and complete unwillingness to release documents related to Kavanaugh was an odd and troubling decision.  Of course, I find many GOP positions to be odd and troubling so this was no surprise.  Then we got the bombshell accusation about Kavanaugh’s behavior as a teenager and an accuser willing to step forward.

The GOP has its hands tied now: refusal to listen to Christine Blasey Ford will haunt them now and later; they know it and have devised a strategy whereby she is expected to testify before the Senate Judiciary committee on Monday next.  Blasey Ford and Senate Democrats want an FBI investigation, which adds time to the clock, a position that is both politically savvy on their part and likely the best approach no matter your politics.  Republicans, with an eye on the coming November 2018 midterm, want a nomination sealed and delivered before election day.  They know there is a coming accounting for their inexcusable placement of party over nation and they see Kavanaugh as one final reward before their caskets start being politically sealed for a generation.

And so we have a stand-off, not just between Senate Democrats and Republicans, but between a nation of women, most of whom know that Blasey Ford is telling the truth because we know the kind of courage it takes for a woman to come forward and tell her story.  I don’t believe that all men engage in the behavior that Kavanaugh demonstrated; I know plenty of men who are decent people drunk or sober.  I am willing to believe that Kavanaugh only did it once.  But I don’t excuse irresponsible teenage behavior that comes without regret and a willingness to change its ways.  My problem isn’t just the assault, it’s Kavanaugh’s unwillingness to be forthright about what happened.  

We are in a strange place as a nation, with a dishonest and dishonorable man in the White House, the leader of a party whose moral conscience is largely made up of cowardly jelly.  The Republican party can see its reckoning on the horizon.  When I bet against Kavanuagh’s confirmation, I never expected to win but it feels close and even if I lose my dollar and Kavanaugh is sworn into the Court, I have a powerful feeling that we are closing in on a reckoning that will change this nation forever.  I can already smell the hope and change coming our way.